Long Live the King (An Italian Mafia Romance Duet #2) (28 page)

“Nice!” Giovanni exclaims loudly in my ear. “Thanks for taking care of Jimmy for me, Don Collazo. Nice gun too. Toss it, don’t fuck around,” Giovanni commands, and Dominic glares at him with fire blazing in his eyes as he tosses the gun at Giovanni’s feet.

“Good,” Giovanni says, satisfied with the ease of this whole situation. “I’ve gotta hand it to you, Dominic, you’re a tough motherfucker. But you were never ready to be a boss. You should’ve killed Jimmy as soon as you found out he took Victor’s truck in the first place, then this whole thing could’ve been avoided. Oh well, it is what it is, I guess. It’s nothing personal.”

Dominic glares at Giovanni, then he glances at me. We make eye contact for a split second, then Dominic looks down at the ground, signaling for me to try to get away by ducking under Giovanni’s arm. I give him the slightest nod to let him know I understand, just before he speaks again

“You don’t know us very well,” he says with a sinister grin. “And I’d hate for you to get the wrong impression, so it’s important that I’m honest with you. Your miserable, fat fucking life will be over in the next sixty seconds. You should’ve never stepped foot in this alley. It’ll be the last place you ever see.”

As if Dominic’s threat is my cue, I lower my chin and bite down on Giovanni’s meaty arm. I immediately feel the metallic-tasting blood shoot into my mouth as Giovanni lets out a horrible scream. He pulls the trigger, but Dominic has already moved, and the next sound I hear is knuckle on bone.

Giovanni stumbles back, giving me enough time to wiggle out of his grip as Dominic comes at him again. Dominic swings another punch, but Giovanni sees it coming and ducks out of the way, countering with a punch of his own. This time it’s Dominic who stumbles backwards, but he regains his footing quickly, the adrenaline of the moment numbing the pain in his leg and shoulder. He charges Giovanni just as the huge hitman tries to raise his gun, and the two of them collide and crash into a dumpster. Giovanni tries to raise the barrel of the weapon to Dominic’s face, while Dominic fights with everything in him to keep the gun down, but Giovanni is nothing like the skinny goon from inside. He is too big and too strong.

I can see the shift happening. The gun slowly starts to move towards Dominic as the muscles in his injured shoulder succumb to being overused and betray him. Dominic lets out a scream as he realizes he’s losing, but my body goes into cruise control, and the next thing I know, I’m reaching down and picking up the gun Dominic tossed at Giovanni’s feet just a few moments ago. I lift it as fast as I can and point it at Giovanni’s face.

“Stop!” I scream. “Drop it, you fucking asshole!”

But Giovanni calls my bluff. I literally see him grin at me as he continues to overpower the weakened Dominic, and the barrel ends up right in front of Dominic’s chin.

“Do it, Alannah!” Dominic screams. Then it happens.

The flash scares me, and once again, I jump at the sound of another gunshot ringing throughout the alley. My heart surges into a panic as the body falls down into a heap in front of me and I realize what just happened, and I feel the urge to scream.

Giovanni is face down on the concrete, blood oozes from the side of his head, and Dominic is still standing.

I’m not sure what to feel, or what to think. My brain is filled with scattered thoughts that make no sense apart or together, and it isn’t until I feel the warmth of Dominic’s embrace that I realize where I am and what just happened. I just shot Giovanni. I killed him.

I killed a man.

“You had to do it,” Dominic says softly in my ear, as if he can read my thoughts. “He left us no choice, and that’s all there is to it. It was self-defense. You hear me? Fuck him. You had to.”

I hear him, but I can barely register the words. I know what he’s saying is true, but I also know it won’t keep the nightmares of this night from haunting me for the rest of my life. I had to kill him, but that doesn’t mean I’m okay with it, or that I ever will be.

As tears start to sting my eyes, Dominic wraps an arm around me and forces me to start walking to the end of the alley.

“We gotta go, Alannah. We can’t stay here another second,” he says as we walk. “We’re not taking a cab either. I don’t trust anybody anymore. We’re gonna stay in the darkness of the alleys until we get to River City, then all of this is over. Let’s go.”

Our pursuers are dead, but we know if anybody else from the Family sees us, it’ll just be another fight for our lives. So, Dominic makes the right move by staying hidden and off the streets, but the walk to River City feels like it takes us all night, although it’s only a couple of blocks. My emotions are all right at the surface, ready to break through the dam, but I have to stay strong. It’s not over yet, and as long as we’re in this city, we’re not safe and there’s no room for mistakes.

Neither of us speak while we walk in the alleys. We had a plan when we left King’s Court Motel, and three people dying was not a part of it. Both of us are emotionally drained, and Dominic is physically exhausted from fighting and the wounds in his body that haven’t had a chance to even begin healing yet. I’m so tired of this craziness that I could just close my eyes and lay down right in the middle of the alley. I want it to be over so badly I can feel it in every step I take, and every breath I breathe. All I can do is hope that the stress from all of this hasn’t hurt the baby. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if it had. It might be too much for me to handle.

“We’re here,” I hear Dominic announce, interrupting my thoughts. I should thank him for speaking, because I wasn’t thinking anything good.

At the end of the alley in front of us, right next to the main road leading to the casino and directly next to the wall of River City, is the Mercedes Dominic bought me only a few weeks ago, when we thought our lives were perfect. It’s there, just like Frankie said it would be. I feel a sense of relief wash over me as we take our first steps towards it, knowing that the car being there means Frankie held up his end of the bargain when he said he’d come to River City and put our stuff in the car before we arrived. I didn’t want to trust him, but the car waiting for us is the evidence. He did what he said he would, now all we have to do is get in.

We approach the Mercedes from the rear, and by the time we reach the trunk, Dominic’s limp is so obvious I’m surprised he can still stand. Blood has soaked through his bandages and is obvious on both his shoulder and leg when he leans against the car, making sure we weren’t followed.

“You alright?” I ask, although I know he’s not.

“Better now,” he says with a playful grin as sweat rolls down his face. He looks nervous, and that makes me nervous. I don’t want to stand out here for another second.

“Let’s put this place in our rearview mirror,” I say to Dominic, who nods his head.

“Fucking right,” he replies. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

We smile at each other, and I feel a glimmer of hope for the first time in too long. But that hope fades when Dominic’s smile does. He sees something behind me, and his eyes have locked onto it. We’re so close to being free that I’m almost scared to turn around. I don’t want to see whatever the oncoming threat is—the threat that’s about to ruin our plans.

I force myself to turn around, and it only takes a second for me to see what Dominic is staring at. There, at the end of the street connected to the alley, is an Escalade parked next to the curb. It’s facing our direction with a perfect view of us. I’ve seen this Escalade too many times since I arrived in St. Louis, so there’s no mistaking whose it is.

Frankie.

“What’s he doing here?” I ask Dominic in a whisper, as if Frankie can hear if I say it too loudly.

“I don’t know, but we don’t have time to sit here and try to figure it out,” Dominic replies. I feel his hand on my shoulder as he forces me to turn around and look at him. “We’ve come too far to turn back now. Let’s go.”

I look in Dominic’s eyes and I can feel the desperation emanating off of him. He wants this to be over just as badly as I do. He wants to be safe just like me, and we can’t bring it all to an end fast enough. So, I trust him, just like he asked me to, and I nod my head. I’m ready.

Dominic opens the door to the Mercedes and slowly lowers himself in. He struggles a bit as the pain from the wound slows him down, but after I help him, I climb in right after.

Before I close the door, I glance back at Frankie’s truck one more time, and I feel something in my stomach that almost makes me get out of the car. I almost turn back, but I fight past it, forcing myself to turn around and close the door behind me.

Thirty seconds after I close the door, instead of driving away from River City towards a life of safety and freedom, the Mercedes Dominic bought me the night I moved in with him explodes into a giant fireball.

“I
don’t really understand how this could happen. I made these reservations two weeks ago, and I have a confirmation number. I mean, what else am I supposed to do? How could you possibly lose my reservation?”

“Sir, I’m very sorry for the mistake. Just give me a second, and I’m sure I’ll track it down. It may have been deleted by accident.”

“Well, you better find it, because this guy is here now. He has his family with him, he just landed less than half an hour ago, and I need to get them checked in so they can get some rest. I don’t mean to be an asshole, but this is ridiculous.”

“I understand, sir. Just give me a second. We’ll get it worked out.”

The manager clicks keys on the keyboard, but she knows she won’t find anything. For one reason or another, the guy’s reservation got cancelled or deleted. She wasn’t the clerk who put it in, but she’s the manager tonight, and now she has to be the one to handle this asshole’s issue.

The family standing behind him, however, looks terrified. A young black man with a Spanish wife and two adorable kids, are standing behind the older white guy with looks of horror on their faces. The family has just arrived at their new base here in Anchorage Alaska, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, and they need a place to stay until they find a place of their own. Anchorage has always shown appreciation to the military, so even if the family’s reservation has been lost somehow, she’ll make sure they accommodate them.

“Alright, sir, here’s what we need to do,” the young Asian woman says to the angry customer. “I’m going to book the family in another room, but I need to get approval from my boss first. So, just give me a second, okay? I’ll be right back.”

“Fine,” the balding man says as the manager walks away towards the offices in the back of the Lakefront Anchorage Hotel.

She weaves her way through the maze of hallways in the expansive hotel until she reaches her boss’s office. She’s the manager, but he’s the very hands-on owner who’ll deal with this kind of issue. She knocks on the closed, mahogany door and waits for him to respond.

“Come in,” he says, his accent heavy in his voice.

She opens the door and pokes her head inside, concentrating on breathing properly when she sees the handsome Italian sitting behind his desk.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Mr. Sullivan, but there’s an issue up front, and the customer is a little upset. It seems his reservation was lost and he’s kind of throwing a fit. I need your approval to compensate the family a night, if that’s alright.”

The owner of the hotel weighs her words a moment, then runs a hand over his bearded face as he gets up and walks to her.

“No worries, Amy,” he says with supreme confidence. “I’ll take care of it.”

When he gets to the front counter, he sees the man standing there with a scowl he’s obviously forcing, trying his best to be intimidating. Maybe it’s the family he’s escorting that he’s trying to impress, but they obviously aren’t a fan of his over-the-top style of dealing with problems. He’s a military guy trying to show how badass he is to another military guy. He can stand to be taken down a peg or two.

“What seems to be the problem, sir?” Mr. Sullivan asks the customer.

The guy turns around and sees that he isn’t dealing with the tiny Asian woman anymore, and his demeanor softens a bit.

“Yeah, umm, you guys lost my reservation, and now I’ve got a family here without a place to stay. Something needs to be done about that,
Daniel
,” the man barks, trying his best to hold onto his aggressive first impression by reading the owner’s nametag.

Daniel Sullivan has a thought. He’d like nothing more than to drive his fist into this asshole’s face and break his nose. Better yet, he wouldn’t mind kicking his teeth in until he chokes on a few of them before shoving a gun under his chin, making the little idiot piss himself. He’d love to embarrass him so much he never even thinks of acting this way again, not for the rest of his miserable fucking life. But he doesn’t do that. He can’t.

Those days are long gone.

Instead, Daniel quickly presses the keys on the keyboard and books a room for the family for two weeks, with the first three nights free. They’re a military family, and it’s not their fault their sponsor is an asshole.

“Alright sir,” Daniel says with a forced smile. “I’ve booked them for two weeks, and for the inconvenience, I’ve booked the first three nights on the house. How’s that sound?”